My first Sluse was made by the Air condition guy down the road. I , We made it buy eye ball. I told him what I wanted and he did it as I said. As I standed by his side. 8" wide, 45% Riffles every 6" 6" tall sided. All on a Pull out tray. Three ft long It worked like a champ. First 8" was Rubber ve carpet. Rest Miners moss. I loaned to some one and never got it back. E MMMMMM

I had thought about a similar project using punchplate on top of a sluice. What stopped me was the quote I got for the custom size. Later realized much cheaper to buy a standard size if punch plate and trim to size.

Really interested in volume classified when you get it up and running.

Considering something like that to be portable for classifying 1 - 5 gallons in the field. Can take up to an hour to classify that much wet diwn to 8 mesh.

Really interested in volume classified when you get it up and running.

Considering something like that to be portable for classifying 1 - 5 gallons in the field. Can take up to an hour to classify that much wet diwn to 8 mesh.

Aren't we all..

It would be really difficult to come up with any sort of linear 'conversion' equation since the material itself dictates the time involved.. Say something like Just because 25% clay takes 1X time =/= 50% clay = 2x time.. It would take a lot of experimentation to even begin getting anywhere close with the same material, much less different consistencies..

I'm down with your thought process though, Chris.. I'm not sure if the Law Of Diminishing Returns fits in here, but there has to be some sort of a peak capacity, regardless flow volume & dilution factor.. Length should solve some of that issue, but not enough to make it less portable from add'l length & weight.. Thoughts..?

I drive a 4 X 4 pick up with a 6 3/4 foot bed, so that's what I have to move my equipment. I would want to use this push plate to run the concentrates though to get the minus 8 mesh stuff. I have a smaller pump that is used to power the black magic, I think 50 GPH, so I'd take that, put it in a 5 or 10 Gallon cement mixing bucket from Lowes, and extend the end of the push plate over the edge of the bucket, so the material going through the push plate falls in the bucket, and the bigger material goes past the bucket.

I would then either take the concentrates home to finish or run them right there with the gold cube or something like it.

I also at this point and not thinking about hiking it in, but something to be left in the bed of the truck.

I'm just counting on set up to tear down time with this thing I'm talking about would be less then the hour it may take me to classify 5 gallons to less than 8 mesh.

Of course I would really like to use this punch plate to run material to -8 mesh and fill 5 gallon buckets up, but that's probably too much to ask for. I did fill 10 buckets up one day by hand and 8 mesh screens using wet separation, and it took sun up to sun down to dig and fill those ten 5 gallon buckets. I want to say there was probably 40 buckets of material that was +8 mesh. All part of a learning experience. I learned not to do that again. One heck of a workout though. When I thought about this a couple years ago, I was hoping 8 mesh punch plate or a 8 mesh trommel would get me buckets per hour instead of an hour per bucket. Still, to make most ground profitable you need to hit buckets per minute, and you'll need heavy equipment for that.

...Of course I would really like to use this punch plate to run material to -8 mesh and fill 5 gallon buckets up, but that's probably too much to ask for. I did fill 10 buckets up one day by hand and 8 mesh screens using wet separation, and it took sun up to sun down to dig and fill those ten 5 gallon buckets. I want to say there was probably 40 buckets of material that was +8 mesh. All part of a learning experience. I learned not to do that again. One heck of a workout though...

Yeah, I'd say classifying a yard of your material by hand with bucket screens did make for a pretty good workout.. And if you wanted to run the 8- material on site you would have needed to bring the water in 5 gal or so buckets, maybe 20 + - gal tubs, right..?

How's this sound for an idea..? It would require a middlin' purchase, a minor purchase to possible freebie and an extra not-too-time-consuming step:

You'll need to pick up one of those "plastic" 250 gal or more portable water storage tanks.. You'll also need to get let's say a 4' x 4' piece of expanded metal, or fireplace / fire pit grating, with approx 3/8" openings.. The add'l step is, assuming you don't need to first run your claim material through a jaw crusher and/or mill, would be to brace that piece of expanded metal up at a 45 to 60 degree angle and toss shovelfulls of your raw material at it.. All your 3/8" minus will pass through while everything larger will fall on your side..

Now you're ready to run that screened material over the punch plate on down through the 8 mesh.. The reason for the water storage tank is cos I don't think the Black Magic pump will move water fast / strong enough to make things time saving, so you'll need to recirculate more water than you're thinking -- which I guess will require one more purchase: a higher volume pump.. This should come close to making an one-person production set-up doable without killing oneself and without getting into heavy equipment methinks -- assuming you're working halfway decently paying ground.. Thoughts..?

Swamp

EDIT: PS -- Not hijacking the thread, jaybird.. This has just sorta flowed out of your construction project based on chrisski's thoughts as we watch your build.. SA

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the long slickplate is 14 guage the drop zone is cheap home depot steel practicing my math and bend on,,, now I'm ready to 14 guage a drop zone box and start the punchplate classifer . this is my smaller version of the Thomas creek sluice I like so much. but since he don't make em I'm gonna make a few in different sizes. I'm pretty stoked so far